Dick Miller Triple Feature Tonight in the Twin Cities!?

If you've made it out to all of the JoeDante series screenings, you may have noticed a certain actor making brief but memorable appearances in each flick. In Small Soldiers he was the toy delivery driver, in Piranha he was the resort owner, in The Howling he was the bookstore owner, in The Burbs he was one of the garbage men,and tonight he'll be plow driver Murray Futterman in both Gremlins 1 & 2. (Bonus Horror for the Holidays appearance: in Night of the Creeps he's the guy who gives the flame thrower to Tom Atkins!) Yes, we are talking about everyone's favorite “that guy” Dick Miller!

We've been pumped for the Gremlins double feature all month long, and just yesterday it was brought to our attention that we could make this a triple feature night if we stopped by The Southern Theater. The Southern has been featuring some pretty fantastic plays, performance pieces, and live accompaniment movies this month, and after each day's performances they've topped the night off with some amazing movie screenings. Tonight they are screening the original Little Shop of Horrors, featuring the one and only Dick Miller!

So come see Gremlins 1 & 2 and make the drive over to the Southern Theater by 12:45AM and catch LittleShop of Horrors in an amazing old theater. (if you get there a little early you can see some of Tim's monster taxidermy adorning the walls to boot) We're totally making it a Miller triple feature night, join us won't you?

Gremlins 7:30 and Gremlins 2 (on 35mm) 9:30(ish) @ Theatres at Mall of America, 5 bucks each movie. Little Shop of Horrors 12:45 @ The Southern Theater, free!

Super Awesome Bonus Trivia:

Dick Miller has appeared in at least 174 films, and we've seen our fair share of them, but so far we've only seen him play the lead in one film. Dick stars in the Roger Corman classic Bucket of Blood as a beatnik sculptor Walter Paisley. That character name became somewhat of a inside joke to those who loved to cast him. In The Howling, Chopping Mall, Twilight Zone The Movie, and a handful of other films his character credit is some version of Walter Paisley. (We're beside ourselves excited for the documentary That Guy Dick Miller to be released, we've heard nothing but good things about it and we could listen to stories about Mr. Miller all day!)

Halloween III with Tom Atkins.

I am beyond excited for tomorrow. Not only do I get to see one of my favorite Halloween movies on the big screen but I get to do it in the presence of a true badass and MVP* of Horror for the Holidays this year, TOM ATKINS!! 

Ive never actually been able to see Halloween 3 in a theater before. Ive never even heard of anyone screening it around here, since most people seem to hate it. I on the other hand have always thought it got a bad wrap.

You throw together some H. P. Lovecraft/old world witchcraft and mix it with 80's telecommunications technology. Then add some commentary on consumerism and advertising. Put it together with fantastic cinematography by Dean Cundey, a great synth score by John Carpenter and Alan Howarth, and of course my favorite beer drinking leading man Tom Atkins. Im not sure whats not to like.

Get down to the Starbar in the Theaters starting at 6:30 to snag one of 50 limited edition posters I made for the event and if your there real early you will also get one of these sweet Halloween 3 button packs.

7:30 start time with a really great vintage trailer pack, Halloween 3 and then followed by a Q&A with Tom Atkins.

All for $5. At Theatres at Mall of America.

* We played My Bloody Valentine 3D, Night of the Creeps and Halloween 3 this year all starring Tom Atkins!

Fred Dekker and Tom Atkins fans rejoice!

Night of the Creeps will be playing this Thursday September 25th at Theatres at Mall of America. It could almost be counted as another overlooked zombie film, if you relaxed your definition of zombie films to include reanimation for the purpose of incubating space slugs... This movie was a hit with critics and horror fans alike, and you'd think that would mean it was a rousing success, except the studios dropped the ball when it came to promotion and it ultimately bombed. Though a gem in the acting crown of Tom Atkins, the same fate fell upon Fred Dekker's follow up movie Monster Squad, sadly grinding his career to a halt before it even took off.

Speaking of Tom Atkins, Theaters ofMOA are screening Halloween III on October 23rd (that's eight moredays 'till Halloween if anyone's counting...) For us these two screenings eliminate two of our favorite movies to carve pumpkins to, but we're alright with bucking that tradition for watching them with a room full of people just as excited to watch these movies!  

As always the movies are $5 and start at 7:30. Night of the Creeps also has a free super secret mystery movie that follows, so its 2 movies for $5!

Tonight! Trailer Trash 4: A New Hope.

Its time for Trailer Trash. The night that only comes twice a year and boy are we excited.

To celebrate this great evening, here is a brand new Trailer Trash mixtape. The music in here is pulled straight from our vinyl collection and only from soundtracks for films featured in Trailer Trash 1-4.

ENJOY!

Trailer Trash IV: A New Hope (This Thursday!)

This Thursday the fourth Trailer Trash will screen at Theaters of MOA and we keep wondering how that's even possible. Actually, little makes us happier than the fact that other people enjoy going out to a theater solely to watch trailers as much as we do! In anticipation of Thursday we offer you some of our favorite trailers from past Trailer Trash screenings:

Nijinsky:

This trailer was headed for the cutting room floor of the inaugural Trailer Trash. But, thanks to Colette's insentient campaigning for this trailer to be included, Chris was struck with an idea that led to the first two Trailer Trash's "Audience Choice Packs". Back in those days there were two screenings, each with an audience vote at the intermission that decided which block of trailers would play after the break.  Much to the delight of Colette (and ultimately all in attendance) the pack with Nijinsky was chosen, and no one was disappointed.

Vice Squad:

All the madness of Trailer Trash might be summed up by this one trailer. It's relentlessly surprising; you truly cannot predict what will come next. Being able to watch this with a room full of people was incredibly rewarding.

Body Rock:

The song will be stuck in your head for weeks, the dance moves will melt your mind, the costumes will leave you speech less just after you ask yourself “is that Lorenzo Lamas..." We do not own this movie in our Tape Freaks collection, but some day we will... and that day will be glorious...

Eliminators:

There's not much you could say about this one that it doesn't say for itself...

Come check out a night of fun packed with gems like these! The first 100 people to stop by the theaters Star Bar to snag a Trailer Trash poster and enjoy some pre-game entertainment in the theater, and stay after for a Super Secret Movie. It's a whole night of fun, and it's nothing to be missed!

TrailerTrash 4: A New Hope, MOA Theaters @ 7:30pm, Sept 18^th, $7

Super Secret Movie screens immediately after, free of charge! 

Dan O'Bannon

For someone with only eleven screen writing and two directing credits, Dan O'Bannon has an impressive cannon. He wrote the screenplays for Alien, Total Recall, Invaders from Mars, Lifeforce and directed the cult classic Return of the Living Dead.

O'Bannon career started by attended USC with John Carpenter, and working on Carpenter's Dark Star doing production design, supervising the special effects, editing, and even appearing as one of four actors on screen. His next gig was was overseeing the special effects on the unfortunately doomed Alejandro Jodorowsky's Dune. Luckily, the failure of that project left O'Bannon broke, homeless, and sleeping on the couch of Ronald Shusett, with whom he wrote the screenplay to Alien. While trying to get that screenplay into production, O'Bannon worked his last effects gig on Star Wars, before going on to write and direct other influential (though lesser known) films. He worked on Heavy Metal, wrote Toby Hooper's Lifeforce, directed the punk zombie classic Return of the Living Dead, and worked again with Ronald Shusett on adapting We Can Remember It For You Wholesale into Total Recall.


This 3rd of July, the dudes at Horror for the Holidays are screening Return of the Living Dead at the Theaters of MOA, the film itself takes place on July 3rd, and we can't think of a better day to see it again, or for the first time, on the big screen! (We've never been aware of any theater in town screening it, but if they have, we've never seen it in the theater.) Come down and appreciate the strange career of Dan O'Bannon with us, and get ready to quote this flick all weekend long!


Return of the Living Dead, Theatres at MOA, $5

The Zombie fad started for a reason...

These days zombies are co-opted more than bacon. But, there are zombie films out there that still hold their own, even in an exceptionally over-saturated market. Here are some of our favorite zombie movies in no particular order:

Dawn of the Dead – This is the movie that makes you wish you could live in a mall, while you slowly realize how hollow our materialistic lives truly are. Oh, and also there are tons of blue zombies!

The Beyond – For us, this is a pretty seminal Italian zombie movie. It takes place in 1970s New Orleans, it's 100% over dubbed, it never makes a lick of sense, the soundtrack is amazing, the story is strung together with more ambiance than substance, and it's chock full of amazing kills.

Fido – This moive takes place in the aftermath of a zombie apoclypse, an apocolyps that has apparently bathed survivors in the squeaky-clean glow of 1950s Americana. A heart warming boy-and-his-dog style entry to the zombie genre that hits its mark like you wouldn't expect.

Shaun of the Dead – This movie is the best example of genre-mixing: part buddy movie, part coming of age movie, part rom-com, and all zombie horror. (If you have never seen it in the theater, keep an eye on TrylonMicrocenama's upcoming flicks!)

Return of the Living Dead – Ever shuffled along moaning out for “braaaaains”? Well, you can thank this movie for that idea! Full of gems that have been nodded to in everything from The Simpsons to Mars Needs Moms. (Random fact: this movie takes place on July 3rd. The folks over at Horror for the Holidays are honoring that fact this year by screening it this July 3rd!)






Oh, and Undead and Dead Alive. And if you count Night of the Creeps and 28 Days later as zombie movies, then those as well! We could go on and on, but really, as annoying as some of the zombification-of-everything has gotten, it's important to remember that it all comes from a good place! Catch Return of the Living Dead on the big screen and get back to your roots!

Zombie Soundtrack Mix!

Once again we present a "mixtape", made from our ever expanding soundtrack collection! This time Tim has put together a Zombie movie mix in anticipation for next weeks Horror for the Holiday screening of Return of the Living Dead!
Enjoy!

Horror for the Holidays movie: Breeders! at the MoA Tonight!

Tonight! Sunday May 11th at 7:30 will be the Mothers Day movie Breeders! It is this months Horror for the Holidays movie and to celebrate once again we will be giving away a limited number of button packs! Arrive early and grab one while they last! As always at these screenings there will be a vintage 35mm trailer pack before the show!

Tim Kincaid and the Kansas City Trilogy.

It's easy to write off artists who's work doesn't live up to the cultural standard of “good”. But, quite often, you find amazing things when you investigate those creating off the beaten path. Tim Kincaid does not disappoint in that arena.

If you're not sure who Tim Kincaid is, we completely understand. Most of his film career he wrote-directed porn films under the name Joe Gauge but, for a brief stint in the late 80s he made seven fantastically bad straight-to-video genera movies. Breeders, Robot Holocaust, and Mutant Hunt are some of his better know written-directed works, but he's also responsible for Necropolis and Enemy Territory (the only movie to star Ray Parker Jr.) as a result of his producing. His movies were shot with almost no budget, contain spectacularly awkward performances, have production levels impossible to recreate while trying, and perfectly incapsulate the singular time in history where most of the country was simultaneously frightened of and intrigued by New York City; and so far, we love them all!

Though, as bad as they are, all of these cult classics retain their popularity today regularly selling for $80 on VHS, when you can find them. But despite all this, Tim Kincaid's legacy does not lie outside his porn stint.

    

In the early 70s, when the longstanding gay male stereotype in porn (and the rest of cinema) was “effeminate” city-living men, Tim Kincaid made porn films about blue collar workers hooking up in working class settings. His portrayals of gay men as people from all walks of life, influenced a generation of people. As a result, the “Kansas City Trilogy" is Tim Kincaid's true legacy. He makes porn again today, and he discusses some of the modern “taboos” he's breaking in this great interview with BUTT magazine . He also talks about making the Kansas City Trilogy and leaving porn to do “mainstream” work while he and his wife raised their sons (one of whom now makes soundtracks for his porn flicks).

All these discoveries have made us extra excited to watch a Tim Kincaid classic on the big screen. Come see it with us this weekend after a lovely Mother's Day dinner!

Breeders, Sunday May 11^th (Mother's Day!!) @ Theaters at MOA $5, 7:30

CRITTERS 2 at the MOA tonight!

If you're in the Twin Cities tonight and have 5 bucks, you should be at the Theatres at the Mall of America!  

Why you ask?

7pm: Pre-party in the Starbar (inside the theater, next to the concessions) where we will be giving away Critters button packs to the first 20 people there!

7:30pm: Vintage 35mm trailers and then Critters 2! 

A brief intermission: Featuring a local made short film"Bad Egg" Directed by Ryan Schaddelee

And then: Super secret mystery movie (approximately 80 min)

We hope to see you there, we don't want to have a super fun evening without you!

Critters

We're so excited for the Theaters of MOA's screening of Critters 2, we had to re-watch the original! This movie is good fun from start to finish and it contains one of our all-time-favorite insult slinging dads. Seriously, his casual threat to his kid has inspired us to hurl some impressive insults around our circle of friends.

The plot unfolds something like this: One eventing the Brown family notices a strange light in the sky fall into their back yard. Unfortunately for them, it's Krites, a pack of furry aliens hell bent on eating everything in their path. Luckily, shapeshifting intergalactic bounty hunters are on the case, though they seem to be better at smashing up the town than actually hunting Krites. No matter, with the Browns taking out more Krites than our bounty hunters can shake a stick at, someone is likely to save the day!

Things to watch for: The biggest overreaction to the possibility of missing a bus ever uttered by a father to his son. Special effects by the Chiodo Brothers. The same house and yard used in Invaders From Mars. Zoolander's good friend Billy Zane! The flimsiest excuse to have a song written for, and several times preformed in, a movie.

What we learned: When in doubt, throw modified firecrackers at it.

What the filmmakers might have been thinking: I've never seen a horror movie where the heroes swoop in and destroy as much as the bad guys...

“Hey that's” moments with: Dee Wallace (The Howling, ET), Scott Grimes (ER, Party of Five) and M. Emmet Walsh (Blade Runner, Fletch, The Jerk and 206 other things).

Yep, that's: Billy Zane.

Specs (our copy):

Format: VHS

Previews: none

Tag line: none

Choice line from the synopsis: “It's an alien adventure, full of action and just crawling with CRITTERS!”

VHS release company: RCA

Running time: 86min

VHS release: 1986

Original release: 1986

Our rating: Better with a group.

The Greatest Night Ever.

With cinematic oddities, exploitation, voice overs, and so much more, Trailer Trash is a presentation of vintage trailers in 35mm glory! Audience participation, promises a unique blend of cult classics, karate masters, little lost dogs and laser blasts for each screening! We'll be at the 7:30 and 10 showings because (full disclosure) parts of the program are straight from our own collection! (We're so excited, every sentence of this blurb has ended in an exclamation point!)!

Trailer Trash @ MOA Theaters, May 9th 7:30 & 10:00, $7

Horror for the Holidays: Leprechaun

   Our friend over at MOA Theaters is programing some interesting stuff this year under the heading "Horror for the Holidays". The next holiday they're tackling is St. Patrick's day; the celebratory screening? Leprechaun! That's right, on March 14th you can see Leprechaun on the big screen for a measly 5 bucks! 
  
  There's nothing quite like watching a great horror movie in a room full with fans, especially when those fans have been plied with green beer from the theaters "Star Bar"!